Judge's Choice for Best Tech Work Culture

What an exciting moment for the Thrust team. This October, Thrust won the Judge’s Choice for Best Tech Work Culture at the Timmy Awards, hosted by Atlanta Tech Village and Tech in Motion. Representing Thrust, we had Adrian from Design, Cody from Development, and myself (Taylor) from Marketing. The Timmy Awards aim to celebrate regional tech communities and individuals paving the way for tech professionals. 

Starting with a link and a heartfelt application, we threw our names into the hat for Best Tech Work Culture. This award recognizes an internal culture that actively promotes technical creativity, innovation, and learning. Companies that hold these values acknowledge that great ideas can come from anywhere, and reward contributions from the whole team. 

At Thrust, we pride ourselves on our work culture. Our employees come first, and we consider the flexibility and comfortability of our workspace in the highest regard. One of the coolest benefits of being a Thrust team member is our flexible work environment. We work entirely in the virtual space, aka ALL FROM HOME. Yep, you heard that right. Every day, we virtually meet on Slack and make games from the comfort of our homes (and our pajamas, if we choose). But it doesn’t end there. We also have... wait for it… UNLIMITED DAYS OFF. Awesome, right? Major bragging points for that. Many of us have families and value the exposure and experience that comes through traveling to new destinations. If you are a hard and loyal worker, you are rewarded with the flexibility to work on your time and set out to go on your own adventures.

Not only do we reduce limitations faced by the traditional work environment, but we also encourage personal growth and provide opportunities for employees to expand on their creativity and knowledge. Oh, you want to attend SXSW or GDC? Cool, have fun. Tell us all about it, and who else from the team should go next year.

We know we work for a pretty awesome company, but we were a little caught off guard winning Best Tech Work Culture in Atlanta. Truly caught off guard. At one point in the night, Adrian leaned over to me to ask how long we should stay, and what were the chances of us actually winning? With a small chuckle, I replied,  “we’ve got a weak 5% chance of taking away the win.” Luckily, I wanted to stay until the end to get some pictures for the blog, or we might have bolted early. Needless to say, we were blown away when they announced Thrust as Best Tech Work Culture in the Judges’ Choice category. So blown away that we had not prepared an acceptance speech. My adrenaline kicked in, this was great news for Thrust, bad news for me. This meant I had to get up there, in front of a room full of strangers, to deliver a speech on the fly.

Every team took the stage with complete composure and grace while I, standing nervously with a mini glass sculpture, showed shock and awe. You always think you can go up there and wing a speech, but the butterflies kick in, and you’re either speechless or a bumbling mess. I leaned more towards the latter. However, once I started talking, it just flowed. From working at home to unlimited days off, I realized mid-speech, we really do have the BEST work culture. At one point, I even said, “You know what, now that I think about it, we totally deserve this award!” So glad we stuck around for that finale!

Roadie, SalesLoft, MRI Software, Foundry 45, AgileThought, HatchWorks Technologies, ParkMobile, AnalyticsIQ: These are the truly aspirational organizations selected as Best Tech Work Culture finalists. Talk about being in amazing company! We were humbled by the entire experience.

Atlanta Timmy Awards Winners: 

Best Tech Diversity 

Honorable Mention: SalesForce

Community Choice: M3

Judges’ Choice: Futurus


Best Tech Startup

Honorable Mention: Banyan Hills Technology

Community Choice: Stord

Judges’ Choice: Mobile Labs

Best Tech Manager

Honorable Mention: Steve Lathan, Banyan Hills Technology

Community Choice: Sujata Devraj, M3

Judges’ Choice: Adam Tichelaar, Hatchworks


Best Tech Work Culture

Honorable Mention: Foundry 45

Community Choice: AnalyticsIQ

Judges’ Choice: Thrust Interactive

Thank you to our Judges and Hosts for your consideration and review!
We are so grateful for your time and expertise! 

Quincy Jordan | AgileThought

Danny Presten | CollabNet VersionOne

Justin Michela | Linq3

Holly Bellin | Hypepotamus

Kelly-Anne O'Neill | Atlanta Tech Village